Cole Bay 2010

Got an early start this season. Found a slip on Lake Champlain in Port Henry. It's a small town at the south end of the lake. Valez Marina is a quiet unassuming place with a patronage that goes back to the early 70's. Met a guy there the other day who had been keeping his boat there since 1971.

Anyway, after launching the boat I wanted to make my first foray into the lake to be an overnight to Partrige Harbor. It's about 14 miles north of Port Henry and is the first completely sheltered harbor on the way north. Champlain can kick up some pretty nasty waves and Partrige is calm as glass no matter what direction the wind and waves are coming from.

So, on May 16th I headed out. The wind was out of the north at about 20, gusting to 30 and the waves were running about 3 feet with an occasional 4 footer. It was a bit much but I tried sailing into the wind anyway. Hauled up a reefed main and spent about an hour beating into the wind trying to make some progress northward. When I calculated that it was going to take me another 14 or 15 hours to get to Partrige Harbor, my already fragile purist nature succumbed to practical considerations and I dropped sail and started the motor.

Motoring got me a bit more forward progress at the expense of comfort. Heading due north into the wind and waves meant less rolling and more crashing. Crashing into 3 and 4 footers meant lots of spray and this time of year the lake temps are in the upper 30's. Yikes that stuff is cold. Well, after a couple of hours of that maelstrom I found myself next to Cole Bay and decided to duck in and see if it offered protection from a north wind. Turned out it did. It's a really nice picturesque little bay that stays glasslike in a north wind. Right in the middle of the bay is an island oddly enough called Cole Island. :-) Between the island and the north shore of the bay is a beautiful anchorage. I suspect it's not so idylic in a south wind but on that day in that wind it was heaven.

I spent a pleasant evening and night there sampling the minimal comforts available on a 22 foot boat and woke up the next morning at about 4:30. I know, it sounds more like the middle of the night, but the sky is actually starting to lighten that early. LOL, I'm gonna need curtains just to sleep in till 6.

After a snack, I pulled up anchor and motored out on a beautiful calm lake. The sun came up over the Green mountains of Vermont as I left the bay and headed home.

Cole Bay